1960 Gibson Les Paul Custom "Black Beauty" Black

Re-Finished 1960 Les Paul "Black Beauty"
A Unique Opportunity…

1960 Gibson Les Paul Custom "Black Beauty".

This medium weight Les Paul Custom weighs 10.40 lbs. and has a solid mahogany body with a slightly arched maple top. One-piece mahogany neck with a nut width of 1 11/16 inches, a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches and a wonderful thick profile rising gently from 0.90 inches at the nut, 0.90 at the third, 0.93 at the fifth, 0.97 at the seventh, 0.99 at the ninth and 1.00 inch at the twelfth. Ebony fretboard, expertly re-fretted with 22 medium jumbo frets and inlaid pearl block position markers. The top of the guitar has seven-ply binding, the back of the guitar has five-ply binding, the headstock has five-ply binding, and the fretboard has single white binding. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and five-piece pearl split-diamond inlay. Two-layer (black on white) truss-rod cover with "Les Paul Custom" engraved in white. Individual Grover Roto-Matic tuners with half-moon metal buttons. The serial number "0 9912" is inked in yellow on the back of the headstock. Three PAF (double-black) humbucking pickups with outputs of 7.44k, 8.01k, and 7.65k., each with a small rectangular label on the underside reading "Patent Applied For". Original black plastic pickup rings, each stamped on the underside "MR491 / M-69 7", "MR490 / M-69 8" and "MR490 / M-69 8" respectively. Five-layer, black over white plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) on lower treble bout plus three-way selector switch on upper bass bout. The potentiometers are all stamped: "134 6140" (Centralab October 1961). Black plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic non-retainer bridge with metal saddles and separate stud tailpiece. All hardware gold-plated. There is some some tarnishing to the gold-plated pickup covers, ABR-1 bridge and the stud tailpiece - otherwise the guitar is in as new (9.50) condition. Housed in a later sixties Gibson five-latch black hardshell case with yellow-orange plush lining (9.00). This guitar is one of a very few examples made between 1958 and 1960 that were specially ordered with a maple top as opposed to a solid mahogany body.

The guitar has been expertly re-finished to the original nitro cellulose specification by Historic Makeovers (*see note below) and comes with a Historic Makeovers Certificate of Authenticity signed by CEO Kim LaFleur.

*We originally purchased this guitar in 2009, the body had been re-finished many years go - most likely in the seventies.
The original electrics and pickups had been replaced with later versions. We sent the guitar to our luthier, Scott Lentz, who supplied and fitted three original 'double black' PAF's, three original potentiometers stamped "134 6140" (October, 1961) and two original Sprague "Bumble-Bee" capacitors. He then re-wired the entire three-pickup control circuit to exact 1960 specification. We then sold the guitar to client in South America…

In February 2023 we re-purchased the guitar from our client in South America - but when it arrived we noticed a small fracture in the neck around the 5th fret. The neck was still sound but we decided to have the guitar completely re-finished again and the small neck fracture repaired. We sent the guitar to Historic Makeovers of Lake Mary - who are the industry leaders and the guitar is now to the original factory specification (at a cost of $5,300). With all that said, this is still an original '60 Custom - completely re-wired, and with all early sixties parts - now offered at a fraction of the price of a 'virgin' example. (#2318)

https://historicmakeovers.com/makeover-process/